Blog

New Year’s Eve is the hospitality Olympics. Full house. Big expectations. The bar is three deep, the kitchen is firing non-stop, and someone always tries to “just squeeze in” an extra six at 9pm. And do you know what NYE really does? It exposes the little guest behaviours that make a night run smoothly… or send it off the rails. I had a lovely New Years this year at The Titanic Hotel. A brilliant night with brilliant people. And even with great service, you still see the odd

I wanted to write a proper Hospitality Hero year roundup because hospitality people are terrible at pausing. We just crack on. We hit the next deadline, cover the next shift, deal with the next bill, and pretend the last twelve months didn’t nearly flatten us at points. But…. Hospitality Hero isn’t just “a nice idea” anymore. This year proved it. We didn’t just talk about change, we built things that pushed the industry forward, we created spaces where people could learn and

I’ve talked about the budget before, but I don’t think I’ve made it clear enough how furious I am about it. Independent businesses like mine are being completely screwed by this government, and the anger is so intense it’s hard to even put into words. Here’s what I worked out recently, around Business Rate changes..... our rateable value at our hotel in Wrexham currently sits at £87,000, from April 2026 it jumps to £171,000. Basically Double! In 2025/26 the rates bill was £87

Every year we all say the same thing: “We should support local more.” And we mean it. We really do. But then December hits, we’re tired, we’re busy, and convenience starts winning. In this day and age when its never been harder to keep a business up and running, we must do more to help our favourite local independents. Because the high street doesn’t survive on just good intentions. It survives on habits. It survives on people choosing the independent café over the chain, the

In the last 3 weeks, me and my businesses have been up for three different awards… and we lost all three. I’m not going to pretend it didn’t sting, because it did. You dress up, you bring your team out, you’ve spent hours writing submissions, you’re sat at a big round table with your stomach flipping every time they pause before announcing the winner, and then your name doesn’t get called. In that moment it’s a punch to the gut, and it’s very easy to slip into, “What’s the po

This is the week I have been awaiting; the budget announcement has been a grey cloud, unsure if it will prevail with disbursement or rain, and of course rain finally broke, and lets simply put November 2025 behind us all round. Sky News counted 43 tax rises in this Budget, and that’s before you factor in the income tax threshold freeze, dragging more people into higher tax bands over time. This Budget doesn’t feel like it was written by anyone who has ever had to make payroll